people-from-lahore

"The late Ijaz Husain Batalvi was a multi-dimensional personality — a short story writer, critic, poet, essayist, broadcaster, barrister and a teacher at Law College, Lahore. His literary career was spread over a span of half a century but surprisingly, he never published his work in a book form during his lifetime. Intizar Husain, in his article ‘Lazzat ki talash mein’, once asked him why it was so and the humble Ijaz sahib replied, ‘Mein koi sikkaband adeeb nahi hoon. Apni koi adbi haseeyat manwani maqsood nahin hai. Tabiyat idhar aaye likh liya, nahi aayee na likha. Asal mein main aik weekend writer hoon.’ (‘I am not some sort of stamp approved Litterateur. My objective is not to get an approval of my literary standing as such. When the feeling comes I write, if it doesn’t come I don’t write. Actually, I consider myself a weekend writer’.)"

"Ijaz Hussain Baralvi was a famous lawyer and author. He practiced law in Lahore and was well known in literary and political circles. He wrote an essay which was also delivered as an address to a conference in 1974. This Urdu essay is translated into English by Mohammad Akmal Makhdum. Pakistan has suffered imposition of martial laws repeatedly since its birth as a nation. First martial law was declared in 1958 that lasted 10 years. Subsequent martial laws saw political and democratic institutions destroyed, elected leaders murdered and civil liberties trampled upon. Rule of law and freedoms of assembly and expression were suppressed and courts of law oppressed. Political corruption increased and state civil services were corrupted. Social and collective mental impact are discussed in some detail with a wider view of history."

"A well-known heckler would waive his hand vigorously in every class with cries of 'Sarr Sarr. Important Swal 'Yes, my boy' Mr Batalvi would yield. "Sarr, if my next door neighbour's sister is named Yasmin and I called my house Yasmin Cottage, can her brother take me to court and sue me for damages"?"

"Mr. Batalvi agree with Mr. Muahaam Ali Jinnah Qauid-e-Azam who beautifully elucidated in his quotation, "Islam established democracy, peace and justice to safeguard the rights of the oppressed" ."

"He did not deliver a lecture; he gave a performance. He viewed the teacher as the "principal actor in a one-act play." During one of his remarkable lectures on torts, Aftab Gul and I spontaneously responded with wah wah."

"Here in Pakistan, there is a need to appoint a police man with every person to moniter him as everybody is compromised to indulge in corruption."

"When I first arrived in London in 1953, my friend, Ijaz Hussain Batalvi whom I hadn’t seen for some years, had become a dandified Londoner. He had had all the required dinners at Lincoln’s Inn and was about to enter the Bar. He was now living, in what Roger Fry, called"

"Maybe we now live in interesting times when they don’t make great men any more. I am also reminded of another memorable personality, Ijaz Hussain Batalvi. He was not just an ordinary barrister but one who had practiced in England as well as Pakistan. Being at the helm of his career during the 1970s, he became a prosecution lawyer against Z A Bhutto in the Kasuri murder case which resulted in his social boycott by fellow writers. Many amongst the legal community may not be aware of the fact that he was also a fiction writer. The community of intellectuals did not like the fact that he had represented the government."

"At the time of independence, Punjab had inherited 19 jails, whereas 21 more prisons had been commissioned after 1947. It was also at this Attock Fort that the trial of various officers of the country’s armed forces was held in 1973 and then in 1985."

"My boy, he may not take you to court but would certainly take out your front teeth, with the blessings of the entire neighbourhood." Mr Batalvi bought a new blue colour Ford Cortina. On Aftab Gul's daring (so I still claim), I climbed on its roof to perform the 'twist' amidst loud clapping."

"It is easy to bear a person with empty stomach but it's very difficult to bear an empty mind person."

"Mr. Batalvi never compromised on principles and always raised voice for the rights of the bar members."

"In a case of bail which Mr Ijaz Hussain Batalvi was opposing, a very eminent attorney, while persuading the court to agree that the persons seeking bail would not abscond if allowed bail nor would interfere with the prosecution, vehemently urged."

"Christian Youth is the inheritance of Christianity. Youth must come forward to show their abilities, talents and God’s gifts to promote human values and they must have Christ’s teaching in their lives to show tolerance, brotherly love, forgiveness and their self-respect and importance in society."

"The greatest irony about (the Quid's August 11 Speech) is that it is generally believed to have addressed only the minorities' rights. This is only partly true. The Quaid's words were directed at all citizens of Pakistan; the progress of the entire population depended on burying the past (communal politics). What he clearly meant was that discrimination against the minorities would impede Pakistan's progress. Thus, in Jinnah's Pakistan, the rights and interests of the minorties will be protected by the constitution and the law, not only as something due to them, but also as an insurance of the state's integrity."

"It should be interesting to find out why the Pakistani film industry has shown little interest in celebrating 100 years of filmmaking – 2013 marks the centenary of film production in Subcontinent and not of film exhibition that had started earlier. And this despite being invited by Indian filmmakers to partake of shared glory. One reason could be the muddled thinking about the Pakistani people's cultural heritage. If they reject the arts and literature produced in the Subcontinent before it was partitioned, they repudiate not only the legacy of the great Indo-Islamic culture, that grew over centuries, but also the poetry of Mir, Ghalib and Iqbal (who spent all his life as a citizen of India). If the cultural history of our people is supposed to have begun in 1947, then we have no cultural heritage worth the name."

"Sufi, in the state of ecstasy, is annihilated of his own being and subsists in the Absolute Being. It can be surely said, that in this state of condition, if a grain falls or less then this, he becomes aware of it."

"If the world is replete with blood and wealth, still man of God would not eat anything except licit thing."

"When Sufi becomes perfect and his heart purified of evil thoughts, nothing can harm him; he is king himself and all the worldly kings are subjugated to him."

"Two guests cannot be accommodated in one house (heart)."

"Perfect Sufi is that in whose eye stone and ruby are alike. He who is with God Most High, is never indigent."

"If one has deserted the world, but one thought still inclines to worldliness, he is not considered as free man nor an ascetic; his inner defilement still survives."

"Garments donned should be such, that no one could recognise that you are traveller of Sufi path. Mian Mir would always condemn patched frock-the conventional garments of Sufis."

"Do you know what is the first prerequisite of the mystic way? It is the abdication of both the worlds with one stroke of toe."

"He who becomes oblivious of God for a moment, is as good as infidel although impliedly."

"Adherence to Shariah causes attainment to mystic way. When in the mystic way, all the evil traits, carnality and sensual passions are cleansed, it causes one consciousness of the Truth. And do you know that is the Truth? To make one's being vigilant and dispel all 'other' from [[heart] expect God."

"Detachment from the world (tajrid) and seclusion (tafrid) are indispensable. He who becomes perfect in tajrid (detachment from the world) achieves his goal soon."

"Don't take anyone a person holding spiritual power of control (Karamat) unless he is put to test hundred times."

"Death of Auliya Allah, in true sense is the death of their lower-self. When it is annihilated, he gets eternal life."

"Spiritual power of Auliya Allah in worldly life and in the hereafter is alike. Rather after death it is more intensified because in worldly life, corporal being and states are impediments which after death are eliminated. It is like a sword without dheath which is more effective in action."

"We must say that only One exists, Though such a saying excite astonishment; The universe is He, though we must not say so openly Such doctrines must be kept secret."

"Inner travel is a blessed journey. So it is complete now in good manner. Then who can object the worldly travel?"

"Aspiration lead to mystic path and the end of mystic path i gnosis. But gnosis itself has no end. Its gate is always open. The traveler must cross it."

"Nothing in reality exists, except God, the Absolute Being."

"Hazrat Mian Mir is the secret of the domain of gnosis The dust of his threshold is a thing of envy for elixir Intellect has written date of his demise Mian Mir has gone to Heaven in 1045 A.H"

"Don't worry, He (Allah) will not separate his lovers from Himself. It is not possible to unrecognize after having full cognition of Him. But one must not give up struggle, nor becomes negligent."

"All sorts of perfections are attained to the gnostic. He is also confidant of Divine mysteries."

"Every individual being has the ability to acquire intuitive knowledge."

"Every particle of the dust has universal unity. The individual is only in the same way a part of the Infinite Being who fills in the universe, a particle whish has been momentarily detached there from only to return thither."

"Sufi is that who is "naught". If still 'be' he must not 'be'."

"The spiritual practice of Hazrat Mian Mir is highly difficult to follo without complete detachment and isolation. But we have made it easy for our disciples by our own severs asceticism and austerities. Now there is peace, expansion and blissful time in our practice for the wayfarers."

"To know oneself is the equivalent of knowing God. But in order to acquire this knowledge, the disciple must submit to long and painful process of self-discipline. He must pass though all the test of the severest asceticism. Only after he has prepared himself, will the spiritual master open his heart and render him capable of perceiving the mysteries of the spiritual world."

"When a Sufi becomes perfect and his heart cleansed of evil thought, nothing can send him harm."

"Quest for the Truth is not any easy job. Unless you become single in His quest you won't be able to find Him."

"We have come here to tell you that if you can carry on the fight with the same determination and discipline as had been displayed during the past three days, not only will you have achieved victory in the Punjab, but you will also have reached nearer to your goal of Pakistan."

"To-day I am authorized to make this offer: that in the Punjab the Musalmans should have through communal electorates 49 per cent. of the entire number of seats in the whole House, and should have liberty to contest the special constituencies which it is proposed to create in that Province; so far as Bengal is concerned that Musalmans should have through communal electorates 46 percent, representation in the whole House, and should have the liberty to contest the special constituencies which it is proposed to create in that Province; in so far as the minority Provinces are concerned, the Musalmans should continue to enjoy the weightage which they have at present through separate electorates, similar weightage to be given to our Hindu brethren in Sind, and to our Hindu and Sikh brethren in the North-West Frontier Province. If at any time hereafter two-thirds of the representatives of any community in any Provincial Legislative Council or in the Central Legislative Council desire to give up communal electorates and to accept joint electorates then thereafter the system of joint electorates should come into being."

"We are prepared to accept joint electorates on the conditions named by me: Firstly, that the rights at present enjoyed by the Musalmans in the minority Provinces should be continued to them; that in the Punjab and in Bengal they should have two joint electorates and representation on a population basis; that there should be the principle of reservation of seats coupled with Maulana Mahomed Ali's condition."

"The proportion of Muslims will remain stable "bar a decimal point up or down from time to time, at 11.2 per cent" [until at least the mid-21st cen­tury]."

"Mani Shankar Aiyar totally condemns one of Arun Shourie's books, and then goes on to declare that he has decided not to read it : "Shourie gave the final touches to the manuscript of his book on Islam, a work so vicious and perverted that every English speaking Muslim I know was outraged... I decided then to show my solidarity with secularism by not reading the book." (The book he refers to, is apparently Shourie's Religion in Politics, a very sane and sober look at several Scriptures in the light of reason.)"

"No one can imagine an India without Islam and Muslims... If there is any need to sacrifice, I am also part of that. Now let’s see whose hand has more power, us or that murderer (Narendra Modi)."